He is retired and drawing a pension from
the state. Last summer, he ran in the Democratic primary
against Lansing state Rep. Joan Bauer.
This summer, Harry is keeping up with public policy
work. In May, he sent a Freedom of Information Act
request to the Board of Water and Light asking for the
names, job titles, salaries or hourly pay and total 2008
earnings for all of the utility's 727 employees.
Was it a grudge against the big rateraising utility? Or
was he just fishing?
"It was something that was in the back of my mind," he
said calmly, sitting on a couch in his den on a recent
afternoon. "I think someone had said to me, If you got a
job at BWL, you have it made.'"
The information Harry received - at least to him - was
surprising: Eighty-six BWL employees made at least
$30,000 each more than their base salaries, with the
highest - a non-union supervisor - nearly doubling his
$69,388 salary with an extra $66,067. Further, Harry
discovered that another 375 BWL employees had exceeded
their base salaries by $2,000 to $11,937.
"It was even worse than I expected," he said of the FOIA
results, which cost him $57.46.
Harry said that the issue of pay at BWL had interested
him since reading reports of ex-BWL executives who were
either fired or left the utility receiving payouts
totaling $1.3 million.
Harry has published all of the information on his Web
site, SteveHarrypublicpolicy.com. According to a
spreadsheet he made, the total earnings of all 727 BWL
employees in 2008 was $52 million - an $8 million load
on top of BWL's $46 million budget.
Harry says he hasn't received much attention for
publishing the information. One employee, he said, sent
him an e-mail asking him to mind his own business and an
official with the IBEW Local 352, which represents 420
hourly BWL employees, asked him not to publish the
names. Ron Byrnes, business manager for Local 352, said
that he did ask Harry not to publish the names because
it might upset some of the workers.
However, Harry didn't take the information one step
further and find out why so many employees get
compensated over their base salary.
"It's usually overtime and bonuses - you expect a lot of
overtime," Harry surmised. "For the salaried people, it
was more surprising."
Sue Warren, BWL's marketing and business strategy
director, said that the overpay came from overtime
related to last year's tornado and winter water main
breaks, "achievement awards" for salaried employees that
come with a monetary reward, health benefits and
employees who opt to take payouts in lieu of vacation
time.
"All these people earn that money; it's not like we are
just giving them money," she said. "They do earn the
money."
Warren said that union employees can get up to twice
their hourly rate for overtime, which tends to skyrocket
during storms or other emergencies, she said.
Byrnes said much the same. The employees that provide
"critical services" are always on call, which can lead
to a lot of overtime. However, IBEW BWL employees don't
get bonuses.
"Last year, for example, we had a major storm that
knocked out quite a bit (of utility service)," he said.
"We had employees working around the clock."
Harry says he's contacted local politicians and
candidates for city offices with the information, but
hasn't got much more than "thanks for the info." But, at
heart, this is the kind of stuff that Harry likes to do.
Toward the end of an interview with Harry, his wife
called. When he told her he was being interviewed by a
reporter, she told him to "be good." But it doesn't seem
to be a matter of behavior for Harry, as he seems more a
public policy hobbyist than gadfly. For example, he says
his run against Bauer was just to get across some of his
platforms. He just enjoys researching and writing about
public policy.
"If I had won, I would have had to sit through meetings
all day," he said with a grimace. "Doing this, I'm on my
own and I'm doing what I want. No commitments."
An earlier version of this story was incorrect in
explaining the total salaries of all BWL employees,
including ones that made more than their base salary.
The total extra-salary earnings in 2008 was about $8
million.